Spring Fashions 1974

The one coat that's all the coat you need this spring—a perfect day coat. Halston's buff-color unlined Ultrasuede shirt to just below the knee—the right weight, the right length over pants, dresses, skirts - everything you wear for day (what you'll have on at night this spring is a jacket!). Coat, of Ultrasuede Fabric by Springs, about $530. Halston Limited wool flannel pants, $200; cashmere pullover, $65. Background: the Chrysler Building.

No photographer made women look more sexily glamorous than Chris von Wangenheim. While Bourdin and Newton amplified the erotic factor, von Wangenheim's ladies always seem to me more the woman I would want to be—as powerful in the boardroom as they are in the bedroom. This editorial from a 1974 issue of Vogue illustrates this perfectly, following the models from day to night. The interactions in each image always show the woman as completely in control—while coquettish, at the same time their body language reveals their inner strength. The clothes and makeup emphasize these characteristics, while the locations—all around NYC—also seek to illustrate the busy, high-powered nature of the models/characters.

Showing the newly liberated woman of the 1970s, these are the type of women profiled in a October 7th, 1974 New York Times article on dating in NYC: "We younger women have nothing to liberate ourselves from. We grew up knowing that we were achieving women and were not confined to an early marriage. There are so many options open to us–career, husband and family..."

The most suit news in years: the totally relaxed, unconstructed suit that looks like a sweater, feels like a sweater on, and gives you more of a run than a hard-tailored suit ever could—this Blassport navy-and-white tweedy knit doesn't hang in the closet waiting for spring; you slip it under a coat and wear it all year. Short-sleeve cardigan, about $70; skirt, about $54; acrylic knit blouse, about $34. Photographed at the R.C.A. Building.

Three wonderful striped white sweaters—Adolfo's perfect lean cardigan, sleeveless pull, easy skirt—as self-contained as you could want a suit to be, but maneuverable as separates. Knitted of wool and silk; about $495.

The dress you collect: the all-day, all-year cotton jersey polo-shirt dress that you might own in two or three colors—red especially.... And the ideal coat to put over it—over many things—a simple shirt-collared raincoat in red poplin (don't be fooled by red; it's more neutral than you might think—great over white, beige, black, navy—and men love it!). By Kasper for Joan Leslie. Water-repellent coat, of cotton and polyester finished with Zepel. Coat and dress, about $200. Photographed at Ruskay's.

The sneaky two-piece dress that does everything: Right now your perfect restaurant dress—the best turn on a casual-evening dress you're going to see all season. But the warmer it gets the more you'll use it—in April, you can slip it under your unlined coat (or your raincoat) and wear it in the street for day. In red matte jersey, the easy blouson top elasticized and wrapped at the waist, the skirt holding the hip then flared... the fit, the fall... the coloring. Sensational! By Chester Weinberg, of rayon: about $165. Photographed at Ruskay's

Even the woman who lives in jeans has a need in her life for something outrageously alluring... and above is the pyjama that answers the need: Halston's wrapped caftan-y top and pants in handpainted silk chiffon—all pale, gauzy flowers floating seductively over the body. About $740. Setting: Radio City Music Hall.

What the shirt has become is too pretty to be called a shirt. Now it's soft, sensuous, silky-on-the-skin blouse that you can slide under a knitter cardigan for day and do a whole other turn on night - the glamour is there; the rest is in the putting together. Here—for the evening when he's in his Sulka smoking jacket—the perfect blouse in printed silk, wrapped at the waist over white pants; baby "diamonds" at each ear; a peek of lacy camisole held with a clip (it takes a collar that falls open this softly). Blouse, about $75; wool gabardine pants, about $80. Both, Jaeger. Setting: Radio City Music Hall.

Sequins may surprise you—you expect they'll weigh something, and into your life comes Halston's slip of black sequins flickering like a thousand candles... and it is air! A sensational way to be a short dress at night... with a wisp of matching bolero. Of sequins on chiffon, about $660. Setting: R.C.A. Building.

Lois Chiles wears the dress of the year—the dress that's a whole new way of thinking about big evenings. A gentler, infinitely more subtle way and, in its subtlety, ten times more exciting than anything that's happened in a decade—it doesn't take a room by storm, but by charm. It's Bill Blass's out-and-out seduction in navy georgette... the bodice thin as thinnest veil over a bare camisole top; the skirt with inserts of pleats that pleats that burst into motion at every step. Of Kabat Textile silk. About $735.